


Transphobia and Protective Father-Figures

by bisexualdisaster221



Series: Transgender Peter Parker [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Field Trip, Gen, Hugging, Hurt/Comfort, Irondad, Minor Original Character(s), Misgendering, Non-binary character, Peter Parker's Field Trip to Stark Industries, There's a lot of hugging, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Trans Male Character, Trans Peter Parker, Transphobia, and crying, deadnaming, mrs abbott is stupid, spiderson, yes ik theres a canon history teacher but i didnt wanna make em look like a jerk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:47:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25896184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisexualdisaster221/pseuds/bisexualdisaster221
Summary: Peter was banned from going on a field trip. Luckily for him, he's not missing much. Unluckily for him, one of the tour guides broke down in tears and can't find anyone else to lead their group, meaning that Peter has to step in.And even more unluckily for him, the group just so happens to include his bully and his least favorite teacher.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Transgender Peter Parker [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1878373
Comments: 31
Kudos: 1001





	Transphobia and Protective Father-Figures

**Author's Note:**

> Rated T for swearing
> 
> This fic is literally a rollercoaster, I couldn't stay on any one topic for more than three sentences lmao

Peter bit back tears, his foot tapping impatiently against the floor of the elevator. He held his head up to try to stop them from falling, but that only seemed to encourage more to form. He sniffled stubbornly. He was not going to cry on Tony Stark’s elevator.

“Peter? You seem to be in some distress. Would you like me to contact Boss?” FRIDAY’s voice echoed through the ceiling. Peter sniffed.

“No thanks, FRI.”

The elevator dinged, and Peter practically stumbled out. He ran down the staircase to Mr. Stark’s lab and scanned his card as quickly as possible. His frantic footsteps alerted Mr. Stark, who spun around and simultaneously dropped his wrench onto the lab table.

“Peter?” he questioned, shocked. Peter flung himself at his mentor, uncaring of the slight “oof” the man let out from the force of the impact.

“Isn’t it a school day, Underoos?” he asked, his tone gentler this time. Peter ignored the question as he took in a shaky breath. His heart slowed after a few deep breaths, and he pressed his face further into Tony’s grease-stained, most likely three-day-old shirt.

“My school’s on a field trip,” he said, as if that would explain everything.

“And you’re not going?”

Peter shook his head and pulled away. He furiously wiped away a stray tear. “Too many absences,” he gritted angrily, “there’s some bullshit last-minute policy they put in place. Apparently, no one with more than three absences in the last month can go.”

Tony pressed his lips together and pulled Peter into a half-hug. Peter accepted the gesture and felt the anger ebb away as Tony rubbed his shoulder.

“You can’t have missed out on much.”

“I guess,” he mumbled, “the field trip was here.”

“Here? Like, in this building?”

Peter nodded. Mr. Stark burst out laughing. “You’ve really got rotten luck, huh kid?”

The teen giggled weakly, wiping away the last of his tears. Tony clapped him on the shoulder. C’mon. You’ve got the whole day off. Let’s work on something productive, hm?”

Peter smiled weakly up at his mentor and pulled away, reaching into his bag to retrieve his notebook. He flipped it open to the newest page- a section entirely dedicated to a new design for his web-shooters. “I came up with it last night,” he explained, handing it over, “It’s not much, but it’s a start.”

Tony scanned the page and nodded as he went. “This’ll work. Nice job, kiddo. I’m gonna clean up a bit and then we can start on that.” He tucked the notebook under his arm and turned back to tidy up his workspace.

Peter stepped over to an empty table, setting down his bag. He ran over to the cabinets to grab a multitude of supplies- graph paper, a pencil, a box of wires, screws, and spare metal parts, a toolbox, and some spare chemicals from the last time he made his web fluid, just to name a few. He and Tony were just getting started on the blueprints for the new design when a knock sounded at the door.

They both whipped around at the noise, startled. Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey were the only others who had access, and none of them should have been at the tower at seven in the morning on a weekday.

Peter untensed a little when he saw Reese, an intern from one of the upper labs, nervously shifting from foot to foot. He was a little alarmed at their distressed appearance but went over to answer the door nonetheless.

“Who’s that?” Tony demanded, “How’d they get clearance to be up here?!”

“It’s okay, Mr. Stark,” Peter tried to assure him, opening the door. “Reese, what’re you doing here? Did FRIDAY give you clearance or something?”

Reese nodded and choked out a sad little sob. “Yeah, I told ‘er it was urgent.”

His brow furrowed. “What’s wrong?” He could practically feel Mr. Stark’s stare piercing through his back, but he ignored it and focused on the distressed enby in front of him.

“I- I’m s’posed to be chap’roning a tour group, but- god, those kids are awful!”

Peter stepped forward and gently led them inside. He pushed them down onto a bench and sat beside them, rubbing their shoulder in sympathy. “What happened?” he asked, concerned.

Reese wiped their eyes on the sleeve of their lab coat. “No matter how many times I corrected ‘em and tried to steer the conversation to somethin’ else, they kept bringin’ up me bein’ trans and kept misgendering me. The teacher was- was so polite, but god, those kids.” They tilted their head up to suck in a shaky breath. “One of ‘em wouldn’t… wouldn’t stop callin’ me a… you know...” they trailed off, but Peter understood completely. 

Peter noticed Tony’s confusion out of the corner of his eye, but he was too horrified to care. 

“Jesus, they did that? That’s- that’s awful, I’m so fucking sorry. Who’s… who’s with them now?”

“Av’ry took over, but she can’t stay for long. Her shift starts in fifteen.”

Peter rubbed their shoulder, though Reese seemed to be calming down quite a bit since they stumbled inside. He wrestled with himself for a moment, before blurting out, “I can take over. If you want, that is.”

Reese’s head shot up. “Are you- are you sure, Pete? Wh-what if they-”

“I can handle it, Reesey, don’t worry. Besides, I’ve been on T for a while, they won’t notice.”

Reese looked worried, but they nodded. “Thank- thank you so much, Pete, you don’t know how much this means.”

Peter smiled warmly at them, backing off as they straightened back up. “It’s no problem! ‘Sides, I got the whole day. Mr. Stark’ll be fine without me for a couple hours, right?”

Tony stepped forward to ruffle Peter’s hair. Peter grinned and smacked his hand away playfully.

“I managed without ya for forty-six years, I think I can handle a few hours.”

“Dunno ‘bout that, Dr. Stark,” Reese said, their voice watery, “You two are practic’lly insep’rable.”

Tony scoffed. “Untrue.”

“Yeah! Com-completely untrue,” Peter protested.

“Yeah, thanks for the input, kid.”

“See?!” Reese laughed, pointing at the two, “you’re doing it!”

“Doing what? Breathing?”

“Wanting to die?”

“NOPE. not today, Underoos. No nihilistic humor ‘til Monday. That’s the rule.”

“Since when?!”

“Since right now. FRIDAY, add that to the ‘Protect The Kid From The World’ Protocol.” FRIDAY complied happily- well, as happily as a sentient AI could, anyway. “Now get goin’, kid.”

Peter stared at his mentor for a moment before both he and Tony burst out laughing.

“Okay, Mr. Stark. Can you work on the designs while I’m gone? I wanna get started as soon as I-”

“YES, now go!”

“Uuuuuugh, fiiiiiiine,” Peter grumbled. Reese stood and grabbed him by the arm, dragging him out of the lab, up the stairs, and back into the elevator.

“Which floor will you be headed to?” FRIDAY asked sweetly, as if she hadn’t just betrayed Peter moments ago.

“Second,” Reese replied. They turned to Peter. “So, you know how to give a tour?”

Peter laughed. “I think I’ve been on it eleven times by now, Reesey. I can do it.”

“Okay, but you gotta promise to come find me if they give you any shit, okay?” Peter sobered. “The stuff they were saying was…”

“I will,” Peter assured them, “I hear worse at school anyway.”

Reese sighed sadly and rubbed his back. “I know. I’m sorry. Your school sucks.”

“Only a couple more years, then maybe I can get into MIT or something.”

Reese looked like they were about to reply, but FRIDAY cut in, “you’ve arrived at the second floor. Boss has issued the Baby Monitor Protocol. I will be watching over you at all times to make sure nothing happens.”

“Of course he issued it,” Peter muttered, “unbelievable.”

“Quite believable, actually,” Reese giggled. “It’s obvious that he cares about you.”

“Yeah, maybe a little too much,” he grumbled. Reese snickered.

They pressed a file into his hands and shoved him out of the elevator. “Go on, they’re by Lab C.” Peter nodded, and Reese grabbed his arm. “And hey, if it’s too much, you can always tell your dad to get rid of ‘em.”

Peter’s ears burned. “Mis-Mr. Stark isn’t my dad!” he spluttered.

Reese smiled weakly. “Sure, sure. You be safe, okay?”

“Yeah yeah, fine.” He yanked his arm away and ran off, turning briefly to wave back at his friend. “See y’at lunch, Reese!”

“Have fun, Pete!”

The elevator doors closed and Peter turned back around, quickly pacing down the hall. He chose to ignore the front few pages and focused on the section with Reese’s notes. The checklist indicated that they’d already visited the main lobby and the lower testing labs.

“FRI, how long will this take?” he called out.

“About two hours.”

“Thanks.” He paused, closing the file. “Any chance you could turn off the-”

“I cannot turn off the Baby Monitor Protocol until Boss dismisses it, Peter,” she replied humorously.

“Aw, damn, worth a shot,” he mumbled half-heartedly. “This floor is massive. Where did Reese say they were?”

“By Lab C.”

“Yeah, no clue where that is, chief.”

“Take a right at the intersection ahead. They will be approximately thirty meters in front of you.”

Peter nodded and shoved the file under his arm. A tingle shot up his arm. “Something doesn’t feel right,” he muttered.

“The building is secure, Peter.”

“Is it possible you missed something?” he asked, voice cracking.

“It’s unlikely, but I can alert Boss if you’d like.”

“No no,” he said quickly, “don’t bother him. It’s probably nothing.”

Peter pressed his lips together and rounded the corner. He caught sight of the tour group and slowed his pace a little. The tingling became more intense.

“Hi guys, I’m Peter. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, your previous tour guide was unable to resume, so I’ll be taking over. Got that?”

Silence. And then:

“Peter?”

Peter whipped his head up. Thirty slack-jawed students from Midtown Tech stared right back at him.

“Oh- oh shit,” he muttered. He shifted uneasily on his feet. “Hey- hey, what’s… what’s up guys?” he awkwardly grimaced.

“Ella, how the hell did you sneak in here?”

Peter turned his attention to the voice- Mrs. Abbott. Oh, fuck. Mrs. Abbott hated him.

“I- I told you, I work here.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be on the tour?” Abe asked, thankfully turning the attention away from Peter’s transphobic history teacher.

“I couldn’t go, so I came to work instead,” he explained, unconsciously backing up a little.

“Ella, this isn’t funny! Your stupid pranks have gone too far!” Mrs. Abbott damn well near shrieked. “Not only did you violate school policy, but you also snuck on the bus and faked an internship position here!”

Peter’s face went white. He could see Flash and a couple of his friends smirking out of the corner of his eye.

“I’m- I didn’t sneak out! I work- I work here!”

“I’ve had enough of this,” Mrs. Abbott scolded, stepping forward as if she could intimidate a superhuman who had five inches on her, “I’ll be calling your aunt once we’re back on the bus, and you’ll be getting detention on Monday.”

“But-”

“Go back on the bus.”

“What-”

“NOW.”

“Yeah, go back to the bus, Penis!” Flash cackled.

Peter sighed, trying to ignore the shakiness that had long-since settled in his voice. “Listen, I’m not going back to the bus,” he said firmly, “I’m giving the tour. No one else is here to give it, so without me, you’ll be stuck here all day.”

Mrs. Abbott looked like she wanted to claw Peter’s face off, but she pulled herself together and, thankfully, backed off. “You know what? Fine. As soon as your little lies are exposed, you’ll be heading right back to school.”

“Fantastic,” he gritted out. The class fell silent. “Now, let’s get started. I was told you guys’ve already been to the lower testing labs, so we’re gonna take a look at the lower R&D labs. If you’ll follow me, we’re gonna take the elevator up to the ninth floor. An intern from Lab F agreed to give you guys a tour up there.” He began walking back to the elevator, and the class quickly followed. It almost made him think of a horde of baby ducks following their mother, in a strange sort of way.

As they walked, Peter took the liberty of explaining a few things. “As you probably already know, the labs on floors two through ten are for smaller, unclassified projects. These are things that the press is allowed to know about, things like StarkPhone updates or upgrades to already-existing technology.”

“Peter?” Cindy called out.

He turned around momentarily. “Yeah?”

“Um- Mx. Reese was talking about lab safety before they left, but they didn’t get to finish before… well…”

Peter nodded, glad at least one person respected Reese’s existence. “I can go over lab safety, if that’s what you're asking.”

“Uh-huh.”

Peter slowed his pace a little. “The lab safety rules are pretty standard,” he explained, “most of the rules here are the same as the school’s, except that you’re not allowed to touch anything, like, at all, unless the lab director tells you that you can. Make sense?”

The class let out a collective “yes.” Peter nodded.

They filed into the elevator, Peter going last so he was sure to be at the front. Flash smirked at him as he walked by. Ned looked nervous. Mrs. Abbott was growing angrier by the second. Peter went in, and the doors closed behind him.

“Hello again, Peter,” FRIDAY greeted, “Which floor are you headed to?”

Most students in the class flinched violently at the sudden new voice. Peter bit back a laugh. “Ninth, please. Everyone, this is FRIDAY, Mis-Dr. Stark’s personal AI. She runs all throughout the tower and makes sure everything’s running smoothly. She connects with peoples’ devices through each of our several WiFi routers to make sure nothing confidential gets out, and she reports directly back to Dr. Stark! Any questions?”

“How the fuck did you get the AI to pretend to know you?!” Flash snapped, grabbing Peter by the back of his shirt and tugging. “Did you hack it?!”

“I assure you, Mr. Thompson, I am nearly impossible to hack,” came FRIDAY’s cool and collected voice. She spoke with a bit of sharpness, indicating that she was not happy with Flash. “Peter would have had to go through several firewalls and break over one hundred million lines of code. That feat is humanly impossible in Peter’s fifteen years of life.” Peter breathed a sigh of relief.

Flash gritted his teeth and looked like he wanted to say more, but Peter made sure to cut him off. “I did not hack her, Flash. And FRI, are you sure you can’t turn off the BMP?”

“Yes, Peter, I’m sure. I have already sent an incident report, complete with video and audio footage, to Boss.”

“No, no! No no no, Mr. Stark doesn’t need to know about this!” He spoke quickly, panic causing his voice to rise a few keys.

“I can’t break protocol, sorry.”

Peter groaned. “Okay, fine, it’s whatever. Tell Mr. Stark that everything’s under control.”

“Boss says to tell you that he doesn’t believe you.”

“Of course he doesn’t. He’s Mr. Stark. Can’t you just-”

The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open to reveal the ninth floor. “Have a great tour, Midtown,” FRIDAY said, almost teasingly.

Peter froze for a second. Shit, he’d forgotten the rest of them were there. “Uh, right,” he said quickly, “let’s go see the labs.”

-X-

By the end of the two hours, Peter was ready to rip his ears off and send them to Mr. Stark as a ‘fuck you’ present.

Flash had been insulting him and calling him a liar every five seconds. Peter wasn’t an angry dude, but he was about three more yells of “Penis Parker!” away from socking Flash right in the face.

Mrs. Abbott, true to her transphobic and just in-general rude ways, made sure to check with every single intern they came across that Peter actually worked there. It was frustrating when she took one intern not knowing who Peter was at first glance as meaning that Peter didn’t have an internship, even though it was logically impossible for Peter to know every single fucking intern in the building. Not only that, but she made sure to misgender him every time she spoke, just to add insult to injury.

As they were wrapping up in the final lab- a lab specifically designed for tour groups to mess around in- Peter took the opportunity to conclude the tour. “Well, as fun as this has been,” he said sarcastically, attracting the attention of the rowdy class, “it’s about time we wrapped this up. It was truly a pleasure, having you all here today. If you’ll follow Jason,” he nodded to the shy college intern in the corner, “he’ll lead you back down to the lobby.”

“Wait just a second,” an awfully familiar charismatic voice called out. Everyone’s heads whipped around to face the Actual Fucking Tony Goddamn Stark, who was leaning against the doorway with his sunglasses down like he ran the company or something.

“Mr. Stark?” Peter questioned, dread filling his voice. This couldn’t be good. “You’re literally never below floor eighty.”

“For good reason,” he said, strutting into the room. “Jesus, this place is in desperate need of a redesign. Maybe I should get Pep in here, have her… work her magic.”

“Ms. Potts is busy, you know, running your company,” Peter pointed out. Mr. Stark snorted and flung an arm casually around Peter’s shoulders.

“I’m sure she could find the time. So, this your class?”

He gestured unceremoniously to the thirty-something gaping teenagers. “Obviously,” Peter rolled his eyes.

“Ella Parker, do NOT address Dr. Stark in such a rude manner!” Mrs. Abbott shrieked, launching forward to grab Peter’s arm and presumably drag him away.

Tony’s expression turned dark. He pried Abbott’s hand off of him, to which Peter shot him a grateful look. “Excuse me, but I don’t think you get to decide how my intern addresses me.”

The look on Abbott’s face was priceless. Peter could already see MJ snickering in the back as she pulled out her phone to take a picture.

“Your- your intern?” she squeaked, cowering back.

“Yes, my intern. Now that I mention it, you’ve been acting pretty disgusting towards him all day. What’s up with that, hm?” Tony’s grip on Peter tightened, almost protectively. “You trying to get fired or something?”

“No- no, I- I just- I-”

“Ah-ah, quiet. The adult is talking.” Peter had to stifle a giggle at that. Mrs. Abbott shut up. “Not only have you been calling my intern a liar, but you’ve also been misgendering and dead-naming him all day, despite the fact that you, being an employee at a government-funded school, are subject to anti-discrimination laws.”

“Not only that,” he continued, loosening his grip on Peter a bit, “but you’ve allowed several of his classmates to bully him all day.”

“I- I didn’t- I haven’t-” she spluttered.

“Oh yes,” he cut her off, “FRIDAY records everything that happens in this tower. I have documentation, and I think I’ll be sending that documentation to the higher-ups at your school.”

Mrs. Abbott paled. Flash’s strained face told Peter that the boy knew he was screwed.

“Now, let me make this very, very clear,” he said, stepping forward. He removed his sunglasses and leaned in close to Abbott’s white face, just to really up the intimidation factor. “If you ever, and I mean ever, disrespect him again, I’ll make sure your ass is thrown in prison quicker than you can say his deadname. Capiche?”

Mrs. Abbott frantically nodded, backing away in panic.

“Jacob, was it?”

“J-Jason.”

“Whatever. You’ll lead them back down?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. MJ, Ted, nice seein’ ya,” he waved at the two. MJ threw her head up in acknowledgement and Ned excitedly waved.

Peter watched as the class filed out of the room, whispering frantically to one another, no doubt about what just went down. Peter felt the energy drain out of him as soon as the door closed. He stepped forward and collapsed onto Mr. Stark, arms wrapping around the man like his life depended on it.

“That was really somethin’, huh kid?” Tony said, a certain softness in his tone. Peter nodded into his chest. “I was completely serious, by the way. I’m definitely suing her over this.”

“Please don’t,” Peter begged, his voice muffled by Tony’s shirt. Tony’s arms came up to hug him back, one hand planting itself firmly on his back and the other becoming tangled in his hair. “I don’t wanna make a big deal over this.”

Peter could hear the frown in Tony’s voice as he spoke, “Underoos, she was being a dick to you all day. What she did, or failed to do, in that Flash kid’s case, is cause enough to fire her.”

Peter sniffled. Tony soothingly rubbed his back.

“Okay,” he mumbled weakly.

They stayed like that for a little longer, before Peter’s stomach growled. Loudly. Peter’s cheeks burned and Tony’s chest rumbled with laughter.

“Hungry much?” He pulled away. “C’mon kiddo, let’s get some food in ya, then we can work on those designs.”

Peter nodded and followed Tony out of the lab. He watched his mentor lead the way with a sense of pure admiration.

“Thank you, Mr. Stark,” he said quietly, though he made sure it was loud enough for the man to hear.

Tony hesitated a second before replying, teasingly, “No need to thank me. I’m this great all the time.”

Peter snickered, and Tony let him catch up with him so he could ruffle his hair.

“Now c’mon. I’ve got a pizza waiting upstairs, and it’s getting cold.”

Peter smiled up at him. “Okay, Mr. Stark,” he grinned, the feelings of anger and irritation that had been steadily building ebbing away with every step he took.

For the first time that day, he felt content, and it was all thanks to Mr. Stark.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in like two hours and man I'm not too proud of it. Yes I know I'm far from the first one to write about this trope, and I'm definitely not the first person to write about trans Peter in this trope, but goddammit I got bored and wanted to write it.
> 
> also i totally bullshitted the "100 million lines of code" thing (i did a single google search and estimated from there) so please let me know if that's accurate or not
> 
> I hope you like it! Let me know what you think.
> 
> -Pat <3


End file.
